43 articles - From Saturday Jan 08 2022 to Friday Jan 14 2022
Guidelines, position statements, white papers, technical reviews, consensus statements, etc…
meta-analyses and systematic reviews
RCT, clinical trials, retrospective studies, etc…
| Ann Rheum Dis |
Immunogenicity of BNT162b2 vaccine against the Alpha and Delta variants in immunocompromised patients with systemic inflammatory diseases. Rituximab and methotrexate differentially impact the immunogenicity of BNT162b2, by impairing B-cell and T-cell responses, respectively. Delta fully escapes the humoral response of individuals treated with rituximab. These findings support efforts to improve BNT162b2 immunogenicity in immunocompromised individuals (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT04870411). |
| Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken) |
Changing patterns in treatment, remission status and categories in a long-term Nordic cohort study of juvenile idiopathic arthritis. In this Nordic JIA cohort study the remission rate did not increase even though significantly more patients were off medication at the 18-year follow-up compared to 8years after disease onset. The distribution of patients in the ILAR categories continued to change significantly throughout the 18-year study period. |
Extent of and reasons for discontinuation and nonpublication of interventional trials on connective tissue diseases: an observational study. One of three registered CTD-RCTs fails to be completed or published. This represents a waste of resources and raises ethical concerns regarding hidden clinical data and unfruitful participation by patients. |
The Incidence, Risk Factors, and Mortality of Clinical and Subclinical Rheumatoid Arthritis-associated Interstitial Lung Disease: A Population-based Cohort. RA-ILD occurs in nearly 1 in 6 patients with RA within 20years and is associated with shorter survival. Lack of significant change in RA-ILD incidence over 6 decades deserves further investigation. |
Validity and reliability of four parent/patient reported outcome measures for juvenile idiopathic arthritis remote monitoring. The four tested PCROs showed good criterion validity and excellent reliability. These tools can be considered for remote patient assessment, when in person evaluation might not be possible. |
| Arthritis Res Ther |
Hyaluronidase treatment of synovial fluid is required for accurate detection of inflammatory cells and soluble mediators. Homogenization of the entire SF sample leads to less variability in IgG and oxylipin levels and prevents erroneous conclusions based on incomplete isolation of synovial fluid cells. |
Impact of lung function decline on time to hospitalisation events in systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease (SSc-ILD): a joint model analysis. The association of lung function decline with an increased risk of hospitalisation suggests that slowing FVC decline in patients with SSc-ILD may prevent hospitalisations. Our findings also provide evidence that FVC decline may serve as a surrogate endpoint for clinically relevant hospitalisation-associated endpoints. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02597933 . Registered on 8 October 2015. |
Low frequency of disease flare in patients with rheumatic musculoskeletal diseases who received SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine. The low incidence rate of disease reactivation and the similar AEFI occurrence compared to controls should reassure on mRNA vaccine safety in RMD patients. |
Sex-specific differences and how to handle them in early psoriatic arthritis. After 1year of standard-of-care treatment, women did not surpass their baseline disadvantages. Despite the overall improvement, they still presented higher disease activity, higher levels of pain, and lower functional capacity score than men. The nature of these findings may advocate a need for sex specific adjustment of treatment strategies and evaluation in early PsA patients. |
The association between psoriatic arthritis and venous thromboembolism: a population-based cohort study. This study suggests that the increased risk of VTE in PsA patients appears to be related to the underlying comorbidities and not independently associated with PsA. Age and previous history of VTE were the only risk factors associated with increased risk of VTE in patients with PsA. Addressing VTE risk is recommended especially in the era of Janus kinase inhibitors. |
The difference of lipid profiles between psoriasis with arthritis and psoriasis without arthritis and sex-specific downregulation of methotrexate on the apolipoprotein B/apolipoprotein A-1 ratio. PsA patients had a significantly higher percentage of concomitant disease than PsO. The decrease of MTX on CVD might be related with sex. Trial registration ChiCTR2000036192. |
| Arthritis Rheumatol |
Multiple variants of soluble CD146 are involved in Systemic Sclerosis: identification of a novel pro-fibrotic factor. Variants of sCD146, and in particular the novel I5-13-sCD146 splice variant, could thus constitute novel biomarkers and/or molecular targets for the diagnosis and treatment of SSc, but also of other angiogenesis- or fibrosis-related pathologies. |
Semaphorin3B plays a central role in serum-induced arthritis model and is reduced in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Sema3B expression has a protective role in a mouse model of arthritis. In RA patients, expression levels depend on the disease stage, suggesting different regulatory roles in disease onset and progression. |
| Rheumatology (Oxford) |
Autoantibodies against Four-and-a-Half-LIM Domain 1 (FHL1) in Inflammatory Myopathies: Results from an Australian Single-Center Cohort. We report a substantial prevalence (13.8%) of anti-FHL1 autoantibodies in a large cohort of patients with histologically confirmed IIM; 75% of these cases did not have a detectable myositis-specific autoantibody. Anti-FHL1 autoantibodies were also detected in a subgroup of patients with SSc (7%), indicating that anti-FHL1 autoantibodies may not be myositis-specific. The trend towards an HLA-DR association might indicate a specific immune response to the FHL1 protein. |
Cognitive Difficulties in People with Systemic Sclerosis: A Qualitative Study. Participants with SSc reported cognitive difficulties that had a substantial negative impact on their lives. Improved understanding of cognitive changes could subsequently facilitate development of relevant therapeutic interventions or educational programs for symptom self-management to reduce impact of cognitive difficulties in people with SSc. |
Defining the minimal important change (MIC) and meaningful change value (MCV) of the Psoriatic Arthritis Disease Activity Score (PASDAS) in a routine practice cohort of Psoriatic Arthritis patients. The MIC of the PASDAS provides an extra tool for physicians in the treatment of PsA patients to put context to the patient's perspective of disease activity, while the MCV might aid the use of the PASDAS in PsA clinical trials. |
Drug levels, anti-drug antibodies and B-cell counts were not predictive of response in rheumatoid arthritis patients on low dose rituximab. Results of this study further support that continued treatment with 500 or 200mg rituximab is similarly effective as 1000mg in RA patients doing well on rituximab. These results, combined with absence of clinical dose response relation in the original REDO study, suggest that 200mg rituximab is not yet the lowest effective rituximab retreatment dose in RA. |
Evaluation of lupus anticoagulant, damage, and remission as predictors of pregnancy complications in lupus women: the French GR2 study. LAC and damage at conception were predictors of APOs, and hypocomplementemia in the first trimester was associated with maternal flares later in pregnancy in a cohort of pregnant patients with well-controlled SLE. Clinical trial registration number ClinicalTrials.gov, https //clinicaltrials.gov, NCT02450396. |
Evaluation of Sensitivity and Specificity of Diagnostic Criteria for Behçet's disease in the Absence of Gold Standard. ICBD criteria showed optimum discriminatory properties in sensitivity and specificity with 5 or higher scores for BD diagnosis in uveitis. Diagnostic threshold of ICBD criteria could be considered adjustable according to medical specialty, disease prevalence and local practice characteristics. |
Hand and foot MRI in contemporary undifferentiated arthritis: in which patients is MRI valuable to detect rheumatoid arthritis early? - a large prospective study. This large cohort-study showed that MRI is most valuable in ACPA-negative UA-patients with oligoarthritis; a negative MRI could aid in preventing overtreatment. |
IL-37 blocks gouty inflammation by shaping macrophages into a non-inflammatory phagocytic phenotype. Our study revealed that IL-37 could shape macrophages into a "silent" non-inflammatory phagocytic fashion. IL-37 may become a potentially valuable treatment option for patients of chronic gout, especially for those with tophi. |
Lupus low disease activity state within 12 months is associated with favourable outcomes in severely active systemic lupus erythematosus. Achieving LLDAS within 12 months of induction therapy may be favourable in patients with severely active SLE. The low frequency of LLDAS attainment in high-risk populations highlights the need for a new strategy for SLE treatment. |
No evidence that genetic predictors of susceptibility predict changes in core outcomes in JIA. For the first time we have used al known JIA genetic susceptibility loci (p=<5x10-08) in a GRS to predict changes in disease outcome measured over time. Genetic susceptibility variants are poor predictors of changes in core outcome measures, it is likely that genetic factors predicting disease outcome are independent to those predicting susceptibility. The next step will be to conduct a genome-wide association analysis of JIA outcome. |
Outcome Predictors of Immune-Mediated Necrotising Myopathy-A Retrospective, Multicentre Study. Early IVIg was associated with clinical improvement in short-term follow-up in IMNM. Female sex, older age, initial oral prednisone dose and initial use of IV methylprednisolone were associated with better biochemical improvement. |
Performance of the systemic lupus erythematosus risk probability index in a cohort of undifferentiated connective tissue disease. SLERPI enabled a significant proportion of patients to be identified as SLE in our UCTD cohort. This new probability index may be useful for early identification of SLE among patients with signs of CTD without fulfilling any definite criteria set. |
Predictors of progression to systemic sclerosis: Analysis of Very Early Disease of Systemic Sclerosis (VEDOSS) in a large single cohort. Among patients with RP with at least one manifestation of SSc, without skin involvement, combinations of VEDOSS characteristics were the strongest predictors of progression to SSc at a median follow-up of 4years. |
SLICC-Frailty Index is independently associated with impaired physical function, activities of daily living, and quality of life measures. SLICC-FI is independently associated with poor physical function and ADL performance and impaired quality of life and may help to identify patients in need for additional interventions beyond routine care. |
Use of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography to Standardize Clinical Trial Recruitment in Takayasu's Arteritis. Incorporation of FDG-PET data into assessment of TAK influences decisions about enrolment of patients into trials, improves physician confidence about clinical assessment, and could help reduce variability in study populations. Future trials in TAK should consider incorporating FDG-PET data into eligibility criteria. |
Which inflamed tissues explain a positive metatarsophalangeal squeeze test? A large imaging study to clarify a common diagnostic procedure. Besides synovitis, IMB contributes to pain upon compression in early arthritis, presumably due to its location between MTP-joints. This is the first evidence showing that MTP-squeeze-test positivity is not only explained by intra- but also juxta-articular inflammation. |
Will 'the feeling of abandonment' remain? Persisting impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on rheumatology patients and clinicians. Without concerted action-such as rebuilding trust, improved administrative systems, and more support for clinicians-barriers to care and negative impacts of the pandemic on trust, medical relationships, medical-security and patient help-seeking may persist longer-term. Trial registration This study is part of a pre-registered longitudinal multi-stage trial, the LISTEN study (ISRCTN-14966097), with later Covid-related additions registered in March 2021, including a pre-registered statistical analysis plan. |
Plenty of the editorials are available as full text through the publisher website using the provided link
| Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken) |
Letters to the editors and authors’ replies
| Arthritis Rheumatol |
all remaining publications eg case reports, images of the month, etc…
| Ann Rheum Dis |
| Rheumatology (Oxford) |